Franco Berardi’s ‘Thinking Gaza’ Fails To Think

Key Points:

• The article critiques Western intellectual responses to the 2023 Gaza genocide, highlighting a widespread failure to adequately understand or seriously engage with the Palestinian struggle and the broader implications of Zionism and colonial violence.
• Italian philosopher Franco "Bifo" Berardi's book *Thinking Gaza* is singled out for its shallow, repetitive analysis and problematic equivalences between Israeli state violence and Palestinian resistance, alongside a neglect of Palestinian humanity and political aspirations.
• Berardi’s concept of “ferocity” is criticized for oversimplifying complex socio-political realities into a pre-rational, bodily instinct, ignoring the historical and structural dimensions of violence, especially the asymmetry between Israeli oppression and Palestinian self-defense.
• The article condemns Berardi’s resignation to despair and nihilism, arguing that his failure to recognize Palestinian agency leads to a defeatist worldview that undermines hope for liberation and justice, contrasting this with the resilience and ethical resistance demonstrated by Palestinians like Omar Hamad and Ibrahim Massri.
• Ultimately, the piece calls for a serious, historically informed, and ethically grounded engagement with Gaza and Palestine, viewing the ongoing genocide as a critical moment that exposes global systems of domination but also holds the potential for transformative change.